Knights of Hellsing
by the .303 bookworm
Summary: 38,000 years have passed, but not all Daemons drink just souls and some may prove too much for even the Grey Knights to handle.


size21 Knights of Hellsing/size

size18Prologue/size:

"Mad they said, bordering on heresy they babbled, unstable they squeaked but who's laughing now !?!"

Zelkus Zaphyr, former professor of Quantum wave flux dynamics and Electro-magnetic conjunction studies at the first university of Tellus Major laughed as he said these words.

Zelkus was an ungainly scarecrow of a man with his long jangly limbs, disheveled clothing and a large head capped with an unruly mane of straggly black hair that framed chlorophyll green eyes. A vein twitched and spasmed just above his shaggy black left eyebrow while spittle flew out his mouth as he ranted to his unseen audience.

He checked that the pict-drone was recording properly then continued with his speech.

"The Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests had me dis-barred from the university, humiliated and fired for daring to speculate and invent my ingenious device"  
As he said this he stroked a silver coloured contraption that looked like a cross between a Las-rifle, a tuning fork and giant prongs topped with a long spike resembling a bayonet on its tip.

"This device, the bExtractek/b will allow me to 'extract' the latent or active energy in any medium of matter or even in plasma or "air" and to store it for future use and conversion.   
Imagine, this could replace the need for ammunition or could even function as the ultimate shield, stopping attacks as if it were the blessing of the divine emperor and returning the effect multiplied two-fold, five-fold,ten-fold! Striking like the wrath of the blessed God-Emperor himself, i may he preserve us in his mercy /i". I shall know demonstrate the Extractek in action in my laboratory".

He heaved the device onto his shoulder and walked into an adjoining room, the Pict-drone hovering after him as he did so.

"I shall begin with short range demonstrations" said Zelkus before sticking the longest protruding spike of the Extractek into a small archaic gas-light fireplace. The fire wavered then went from blue to orange before disappearing leaving only a thin stream of gas behind (That Zelkus hurriedly shut off).

Next he waddled over to a giant globe of plasti-glass within which super-heated plasma globs of Promethium played and upon whose surface thick flashing bolts of electricity flashed.

The hairs on his head and skin stood up from the static electricity in the ionized air as He touched the electrically charged surface of the globe, causing the streams of lightning to "flow" into its tip until even the pale illumination from the wall-lights began to dim, but undaunted he pressed harder against the plasti-glass bubble until somehow, impossible cracks appeared on its surface, a jagged lattice of lines that spread until the Extractek's tip entered the interior of the globe.

The flowing whorls of purple, red, white and blue plasma wavered and sunk, their vibrancy lost, leaving them as nothing more than stark, discoloured immobile, "dead" matter.

Zelkus grinned at the Pict-drone.  
"As you can plainly see, the Extractek functions with ease across the Entire Electro-magnetic spectrum as well as (In theory) the Entire Electro-weak spectrum, a postulated theory that I shall now test via "absorbing" gravity's effect on a falling object in a vacuum sealed "clean" environment"

He placed the Extractek (Now seeming almost imperceptibly larger) onto a tripod with its tip protruding through a small hole into a cube shaped chamber.  
He pressed a red button, expelling all air and foreign matter from the room save a small metal ball on the floor.  
+-ROOM GAS CONTENT: 0. NO FOREIGN PARTICLES DETECTED. CLEANSING and STERILIZATION COMPLETE-+

Zelkus Zaphyr then activated the Extractek while simultaneously flipping a switch, causing to the chamber to rotate and the ball to begin to fall only to halt in mid-air (before beginning to drift sideways in tune with the planet's turning movement).

Zelkus laughed. "It works! Ha Ha, of iCourse/i it works".  
He jumped around in giddy exuberance, his long hands waving and flailing until they accidentally brushed the small panel bearing the motif "GravityNeutralization".  
He began to float in the air, his expression at first bemused, amused then apprehensive and fearful."No! Without anything to drain, who knows what will happen to the Extractek? Wait, this isn't possible, it's still draining i/something/i but..."  
But the chambers interior was somehow ibWarp/bing/i horribly, everything inside it and touching it (Including the Extractek) twisting, stretching, melting and inverting simultaneously,iimpossibly/i.

++ At this point the Pict-Drones motor engines malfunction leaving it floating upside down and sideways so that visual contact is lost, leaving only the audio feed++

Voice Identified as Zelkus: "What... Whats happening? It's so, so ibeautiful/i but I have to stop it, there's a rip in the chamber and the Extractek, the Extractek is - I bHave/b to disable it, I'll just activate then fail-sa- AAAAAAAAAAGH, GWAAARGH, NO,NO,NOOOOO YAAAGH NO,NOnononono YEEEAAAARGH PLEASE, N-"

++Noise ends.

Time passes.

+Local timekeeping of Pict-drone is suspect due to detected anomalies with galactic time, relativistic, warp or Chronal effects suspected+

Voice Identified as Zelkus: "It... The Extractek drew energy from something else, a 5th state of matter, I had no idea... But whatever it drew on i "bit" and drew back/i, and isomething/i came threw, and now the Extractek is somehow bonded to me. It should be impossible and painful but it's glorious and beautiful as it grows and fuses with me. I just need fuel for u-me, I just feel so hungry..."

Second Voice of a young adolescent human female: "Father, Are you in there? It's so dark and I can't see anything, we haven't seen you for two whole days, I know that you said not to be disturbed but - "

-Rustling noise-  
Second voice: "Father? Is that you?"

Third voice unidentified:i "Your father's in here but I can't have you disturbing him while he grows towards his apotheosis. He does need you though little human-thing, he's gotten very hungry you see."/

-Screams from second voice. Noise ends-  
-----------------------------------

size18Chapter 1/size

"Lord Ah Inquisitor Trelayne?"

Trelayne did not need to turn around in order to "see" the man addressing him, as his mind examined and dissected the wretch, flaying apart levels of consciousness from the ego and ID to the Super-ego to reveal a low ranking toady in the employ of the planetary governor Lukas Alexander.  
It seemed that he was here to inform Trelayne that his predecessor and fellow member of the Ordeus Malleus Inquisitorium - Fordus Prefect had been confirmed as MIA along with his entourage without nary a trace left of them save the dismembered body parts of the 16 Adeptus Arbites who had accompanied them in their hunt for the heretic-traitor Zelkus scattered across half the plaza where they were last seen.

"Thank you for the report, squire" Said Trelayne wearily, drudging up the ridiculous honorifics used for the bureaucrats and second rank officials of the planet Tellus major.

The fat little man blinked. "But I haven't sa-".

Trelayne ignored the interruption. "You are dismissed".

"But-"

"ibDismissed/b/i"

The toady ran out of the room as if the very devils of Catachan were belching at his heels.

Trelayne sighed in exasperation, to think that the day had come when he would use his talents in a fit of rage on such a snivelling worm...  
"How the mighty have fallen" He mused to himself, feeling at that moment every day of his 180 years.

He found it almost impossible to believe that whatever Warp thing the fool Zelkus had "Let in" could have been of sufficient power (even without a pre-prepared host!) to have killed or even captured as able and dedicated an Inquisitor as his old student and comrade, especially with his entire entourage present.

He called up the data-file tracking the rapidly growing string of disappearances related to the case, which included: The Zaphyr family, 66 Guards and 21 technicians in a half dozen power-stations, The entire population of an illegal hot-bath and the new heads of Quantum wave flux dynamics and Electro-magnetic conjunction at the first Tellus university.  
A considerable list, but one that could have been impossible to create on a more chaotic planet. "Thank the Emperor that this is not a Hive world at least" he mused to himself as he scanned forensic report after report after unexplained disappearance in the vicinity of the Capital of Tellus major.

With its population of a mere 11 billion Tellus Major was a relatively minor minor planet in the grand scheme of the Imperium of a million worlds.  
It was a new addition to the fold of Humanity having been found, cleansed from its mutated ab-human inhabitants and re-colonized just a few centuries ago, just in time for it to benefit from the shift in trade-routes caused by the destruction left by the end of the Great war against the Tyranid hive fleet Behemoth, while remaining just out of reach of the WAAAGH of the (now deceased) Ork Warboss Pazagh Gut-Gorger.  
Its manufacturing industry was small but thriving, efficient and rapidly expanding despite its minute scale compared to even the smallest of the Forge-worlds (Let alone one of the great manufacturing planets such as Armageddon). This was derived in part from the traditions of well crafted and high quality craftsmanship in Tellus culture and from the discovery of ancient STC designs for a remarkable wiring system that allowed zero energy loss transfer, allowing the creation of compact and efficient generators (Best used in Las-Guns, Leman Russpatern tanks and Hell-guns) that were the envy of the sector.  
In all it was a rare jewel of a world, though more a stone than a quarry, but still one well worth preserving and fortifying against even the slightest threat of heresy or deviation (Though in this it was hardly different from other worlds in the bosom of the divine God-Emperor), but its vitality, vigour and size made it well worth to remove any taint or corruption with a scalpel and surgicalsterilization rather than crude mass executions or bombardment.

Trelayne closed his eyes in thought. The need here was for a surgical strike to remove the rapidly growing rot before it could spread, raising Chaos cults or worse while attempting to remove but a kilo of flesh rather than the heart, brain and arms. But here even a Scalpel with a diamond tipped head, that of an Inquisitor had failed.

Trelayne Carefully opened a thumb locked cabinet and out of it extracted a small digital card deck - The Imperial tarot. Focusing his thoughts on the Blessings of the Emperor he pressed the shuffle dot three times twice over revealing:

The Warped Renegade - showing a man covered in silver streaming out of his eyes and mouth, screaming in pain while shouting unspeakable heresies.  
The Hammer of Faith - A representation of the Ordeus Malleus and its servants  
The Spaceship (Reversed).  
The Star - Showing blessed Sol orbited by its planets and gas giants.  
The Warrior - Showing a Space marine bearing the Crux Terminatus.  
The Knight of Mandatio - Representing wealth and stability.

Trelayne examined the cards again for a last time, but the omens were clear and supported his initial decision.  
When a scalpel of tempered Steel failed even with its diamond tip then it was time to invoke a laser to burn and cauterise away the tainted, seeping wound of heresy and Chaos - bThe Grey Knights/b.

-------  
size18Chapter 2/size

The Milky Way Galaxy.  
The Imperium of Man.  
The Solar Segmentum.  
The Solar System of Holy Terra.  
The Gas giant Jupiter.  
The Moon of Titan.  
The 17th Monastery of the Adeptus Arbites 666th chapter: "The Grey Knights".  
Duelling Hall 42

The Justicar Felineus Velord lept backwards against the wall of the chamber, his chain-sword held high in a double handed grip, ready to cleave his foe in twain with a crushing over-head slice as soon as he came after him. However, his adversary, the young Knight Ferak Hortigan was canny and agile enough to anticipate the trap.

Ferak feinted forwards with his Chain-sword then rolled forwards diagonally, only to rise with his arm outstretched and blade thrust forward so as to stab into the armpit of Felineus and there to chew through his leathery skin, armour, implants and reinforced rib-cage straight into his hearts whence it would grind his organs into a hideous pulp.

At least, that was the theory. What actually happened was that Felineus pivoted sideways on the balls of his feet, thus avoiding the thrust and point of the blade.

His heavy Carapace duelling armour blunted the portion of the blow that did connect so that he was left with only a thin, ragged slice on his forearm from the jagged points of the whirring weapon.

His counter-attack was simple yet elegant, Ferank's form was long and outstretched requiring at least a ninth of a second to rise from allowing Felineus to simply loop his undamaged hand around and through Hortigan's guard so as to hold his vibrating Chain-sword a millimetre from Ferank's secondary carotid vein.

Felineus grinned savagely then deactivated his Chain-sword and holstered it.

"You may cease now marine. Excellent work, 13 seconds until you ended up in that manoeuvre and another second until your defeat, and you even managed to scratch me".

Ferak rose and holstered his own (deactivated) weapon.

"You honour me far too much my lord. It was a boon enough just to have been chosen as your sparring partner on this day".

Felineus removed his encumbering helmet and cursorily examined the numerous and still bleeding gaping wounds, punctures and stabs on Ferank's heaving body.

"A rather tasking assignment, was it not?" He said in an amused tone.

Ferak remained still as he automatically replied the litany: "Pain is an illusion, there is only devotion".  
The trainings of a Grey Knight left little to chance, not even willing responses to pain be it from a slashed throat, an acid wound or the other ailments that would befall one in the holy service of The Imperium.

Felineus's grin merely widened as he strode towards the briefing room for his appointment with the brother-Captain Elephase whilst his (unwitting) protege left towards the medical bay en route to the training equipment storage hall.

-Tellus Prime  
-Verezak Hive  
-The under hive  
-An abandoned sewer chamber

i"Zelkusssss"/i

The room was dark, the only source of illumination a thin, green beam of lighting that failed to do anything more than to cast shadows and to highlight the monstrous silhouette of the being that that stood in the centre of the room, facing a large stone table.

i"Zelkussss"/i

Large shapes that were unsettlingly humanoid hung in the in the corners of the room, limbs dangling from them, whilst another lay splayed and dissected on the floor.

i"Zelkusss"/i

The figure standing over the stone table shifted slightly, revealing the profile of a tall "human", at least it had the appropriate number of limbs needed to be a base-line human and any outside observer would have been unable to discern any fine "details".

It spoke, its words choked and rasping:

"Whaat is iit?"

The other voice spoke again, its words smooth as blood on silk, words laced with amusement and pacification and charm:

i"Why, dear Master Zelkus, I've bought you your breakfast"/i

Two dead bodies were slammed onto the stone table.

The form of that which had once been known to his fellow man as "Zelkus Zaphyr" shuffled over to the corpses then slammed his "hands" violently into and ithrough/i them.  
He groaned once, twice and the bodies began to shake and to shrink, losing mass and form until there was nothing left but a fine powder of dust and calcium.

He spoke, his voice stronger, surer and louder now: "Thaa-Thank you"

i"Why, you're welcome master, it is my pleasure to help accommodate you to your unfortunate condition, it seems only fair after you helped bring me here from my imprisonment. However I'm afraid that as of yet I still have not been able to find your dear, dear family "./i

Zelkus slammed a "fist" against the table's corner, slicing cleanly through the thick stone as if it were wax.

"Then keep looking, Emp-.. Who knows what might happen to them if I can't be there to protect them!".

Something that might have been sardonic amusement was in the tones of the being, the daemon as it spoke again:

i "Do not fear master, I'm sure that I'll be able to find them even alone as I am eventually even without allies or your help. Why, you've already gotten so much stronger than you were without my supply of "nourishment", and I'm sure that your kin will "pop" up... eventually"./i

A head dropped from one of the dangling corpses. It was the head of a young girl who bore an intimate resemblance to the original, human form of what had once been Zelkus Zaphyr.

The daemon moved faster than gravity, "stepping" on and through the head and reducing it to a wet smear before snatching the body with a shadowy limb and flinging it in an over-head arc onto the worktable.

i "Perhaps there is a way to quicken the search for your beloved daughter and faithful wife by enlisting servants, allies towards this noble task" /i.

Zelkus kicked the fallen table with what resembled a foot (slicing another thick lump of stone off it).

"The Planetary forces will never help us, my accursed former comrades have no doubt labelled me as a heretic and I have no hope of proving them otherwise with my... Disfigurements"

i"Why master, then make your own help" /i.

"But how? I'm not the Omnissiah, I know of but a few limited fields, I couldn't even make more copies of the pict-drone, even if it hadn't gotten lost on the... incident. I could certainly never craft a servitor not even with the equipment from my lab or your help, I simply lack the knowledge".

i "There are... Other methods of crafting loyal aids given the raw resources I have gathered coupled with a genius of your calibre...  
The first and most essential device is one of safety and control, and is called a FREAK chip..." /i  
-------------------

Brother-Captain Elephase Paceus entered the briefing room, Justicars Felineus Velord and Maza Chorn a step behind him.

He took a seat at the head of the long, egg shaped briefing table; after a beat, Felineus took the seat on the right and Maza the left.

Elephase waited until the doors had finished their auto-sealing then spoke, his voice rough but clear:

"No doubt you and your men have finished going over the summaries of the rapidly worsening status of the planet Tellus Prime." It was not a question. "I'll reiterate, since there are a number of details that should be given face to face concerning the Tellus Daemon rather than via these infernal slate-pads."

Felineus felt and suppressed a twinge that might have been amusement. The Captain's distrust of technology from a series of unlucky accidents was well known. Losing an eye to a malfunctioning servitor, a nose & eye to an over-tightened helmet clasp and a heart to a mis-firing lasgun would do that, even to a Space Marine.

Elephase continued to drone on unhindered:

"The pict-drone's recording. The constant strings of disappearances including that of whole platoons of PDF troops as well as the inquisitor Fordus and his retinue. Warp traces detected by Inquisitor Trelayne and the Navigator Belushmoth before he went insane. All indicate the presence of a daemon with absolute certainty. It appears to have been summoned alone and without support from a pre-existing chaos cult as of now, barring the heretic Zelkus.

"However, The most recent time lagged reports have many of the PDF victims sighted again, active, "alive" and ripping through their former comrades as if they were wet bark with their ibare hands/i. What's more, loss of over 20 of their body mass to massed lasgun fire did not even slow them down even with their heads and stomachs blasted into ash.

"Examination of the iLiber Daemonica/i has revealed information as to the nature of the daemon behind this quickly spreading taint..."

"Which is?" Maza asked, impatient. The Captain was thorough, but this was nothing more than a retread of the mission summary, up until now. Paceus glanced at him but continued unperturbed.

"The Daemonica was clear on the aspects involved as being specific to a group of chaos tainted heretics that infected others and eventually became wholly daemons. They were endemic on Holy Terra itself and had even established dominion over it during the Dark Ages apparently for, '10,000 nights' before disappearing almost entirely after a series of crusades against them. Until now."

"iAlmost?/i"

Elephase turned away from them, then pressed a hidden control, depressurising the entrances to the room in a vacuum lock seal.

"The information I am about to clear you for is Triple Vermillion level and is not to be released, admitted to or copied in any form barring authorisation from myself, The Grand Masters of the Order or the Lords of the Inquisition. Any breaking of this admonition will result in immediate excommunication and execution. Is this clear to you, Brothers?"

The Justicars were confused as to there being anything of Chaotic matters that required hiding from ithem/i, among the most devoted of the Emperor's servants. Pride was not even a consideration, merely a desire to better serve in His name.

"Yes Brother-Captain Elephase, we hear and obey".

Elephase nodded."Swear to this by thine souls as Grey Knights and Men"

The two captains blinked, confused at the need for such meaningless formalities when they had pledged themselves 666 times over beyond pain of death or damnation but as always their duty was clear.

"Yes Brother-Captain, we swear and obey in the Emperor's name".

Elephase nodded a second time.

"There was never any doubt. Now that we've dispensed with these trite bureaucratic formalities ... You know of the ancient history of Sol, of how the ancient men of the Dark Ages came here and planted the New-Teron device inside Titan, giving it a gravity exceeding even that of Holy Terra in order to facilitate its colonisation and use as a base for the training of warriors to serve the Glory of He Who Sleeps On Terra. Some of the other moons of Saturn and Jupiter were similarly augmented at the time, but since then the Tech-Priests in their 'wisdom'-" the sneer in his voice left no doubt as to his thoughts on the wisdom of the Tech-Priests and their malfunctioning surgical devices. "-failed to make useful copies for employment elsewhere in the Imperium or even usable downscaled copies for the colonisation and fortification of the rest of the asteroids and comets orbiting Sol, apparently due to the Machine Spirit getting ilonely/i and tired or 'overenthusiastic', making the copies unusable for conventional purposes. Or something like that."

"Conventional purposes?"

"The copies had unfortunate side-effects, they would only work within a radius of eighty-four standard Astronomical Units from mighty Sol and when they did work on small astronomical bodies there were numerous flaws if not outright catastrophes. If the 'body' was too small they almost created on a number of occasions naked singularities near Terra itself before detonating. On other occasions they often worked on only a single hemisphere, ripping moons apart or collapsing them onto themselves. When used on bodies significantly larger than Titan, they often failed to function at all."However, on astrological bodies of a median size they functioned without catastrophe barring the fact that the gravity was many times greater than that sustainable by humans for extended periods; even after modifications that reduced the effects to a hundredth of its previous harshness. So a number were planted on certain asteroids and moons of the Sol system. For despite the flaws there is one obvious use for such a thing:"Ultra secure, high gravity prisons for the most physically powerfully yet potentially necessary (for their foul knowledge) of beings, prisons where the inmate can be crushed into pulp at the touch of a button without risking corruption prone guards. Where any attempts at sabotage would reduce the saboteur to a crushed smear. Prisons where raids would be futile as the container hides within a hundred billion similar rocks, where the greatest of fleets in the Imperium can vaporise it in a microsecond.

"Very few of these prisons were actually constructed, since no normal human, or even most xenos, could survive it and more importantly there are few that can both be contained and are worth the efforts when the best long-term solution is always execution. In addition the most important aspect to these facilities is their secrecy, and the reasons for this are multifold:"First is the fact that to many this would appear as though we would be condoning mercy to those damned souls and it might encourage blasphemers elsewhere."Secondly is the danger that it might attract Warp-Spawn and other minions of Chaos to the hidden facilities, and any increment of the threat to Terra despite the defences is one which the Imperium cannot afford. And of course," He spat, in his anger letting acid run into his spittle. The metal table began to bubble. "The fact that this allows the Tech-priests to play with their miserable toys at the cost of preventing us from fulfilling our rightful duties of purging the taint of Chaos as hour holy edict bdemands/b is rarely considered.  
The reason I have cleared you for this is that the Daemon on Tellus prime which matches all the dire descriptions and traits of the once virulent plague of Daemon-hosts that once conquered Terra itself and is the same type as one of the Daemon-hosts imprisoned within such a facility here in Sol itself. And this Daemon is bound, unlike the one on Tellus. The Tellus Daemon may not be limited by a Host but may in fact be in this plane in its full unholy strength.

"The question for which I have bought you here, to this conference, before we depart for Tellus Prime with your squads to rendezvous with the Four Blood Angel squads that await us there in the Siege-hold is to call upon your advice as to whether we should risk taking this Daemon in its crypt for interrogation and eventual summary destruction or whether it is not worth such a risk, such... icollaboration/i." He spat again as if the very words were too foul for his lips to bear, his acidic spittle melting cleanly through the table to the floor beyond.

Maza Chorn spoke first, and there was something of hesitation in his voice. "I lack the wisdom to question these ... prisons as a whole, but surely a planet bound daemon is not worth loosing the shackles of another of its kin here, so close to blessed Terra, inside the beating Heart of the Imperium. Our lives and that of a mere planet are not worthy of even the slightest risk to Titan or the Men of Sol. At the worst the system and our lives would be lost and blasted down to the mantle by the ships of the Tech-Priests".

Felineus nodded , then spoke his own piece. "Brother Maza raises many of my own thoughts, but surely we should do our best to win a victory for the Imperium, not a weakened loss and stagnation? In addition using this ... ithing/i will allow us to destroy it without hinderance from the Tech-Priests, thus truly reducing any risk to Sol bought about by the machinations of the Adepts of Mars."

Elephase nodded then held up a hand as his com-bead bleeped and piped a message directly into his neural cortex. He looked up, his expression grim. "I've just received an update dated 19 hours old from Tellus. An entire squad of the Blood Ravens has been overwhelmed, along with another platoon of PDF troops and two marine scout squads with over a third of the bodies being taken. I have made my decision - We are retrieving the Daemonhost".

The Kuiper Belt

45 AU from Terra

An unremarkable asteroid drifting in the fields of space debris

The Grey Knight Battle Barge "Quickgold"

++Servitor 129X reporting succesful Dock++  
++Success confirmed, transmitting further co-ordinates and termination protocols++  
++Orders Recieved. Error. Self destruct activated Protocol Operational classification. Self Destruct in 300 milliseconds. 299.999 299.998...++  
++Operation security parameters reached, transferrance of CLASSIFIED to inner Hangar commencing++

A hundred combat servitors stood around the entrance to the Asteroid as it lay suspended in mid-air held there by the anti-grav mechanisms that surrounded the whole ship. It reduced the effects of the warped gravity inside the relic but not enough for it to be sustainable, and the energy costs alone were enough to fuel a planetary civilisation through a nuclear war and into oblivion.

++Security protocols uploaded to all combat models++

++Confirmed. Beggining calculation of Warp Co-ordinates++

++1.001. Navigation details uploaded. 1.000++

++Course confirmed, Warp engines on line. Gravity Dampeners at full power.++

++Warp entry confirmed. 0.002. All Geller shields at full power. 0.001++

Elephase stood at its entrance, Felineus and the eight Terminators of his squad standing around him as an escort as he prepared to enter for the interrogation.

"Remember your orders, if we don't leave within two hours and show any resistance to the cleansing protocols you are to kill us, melt our bodies and are to jettison this asteroid before vaporizing it and all ship elements that came into contact with it. Is this understood?"

The foremost Servitor spoke, its voice a rasping mechanical wheeze.

+Confirmed. Beggining countdown+

Elephase barely contained a groan.

"Count from after we enter." iIdiot machine/i, he thought to himself.

Felineus noted this and quickly ordered his men into the inner perimeter formation before turning to his commander. "Well Brother-Captain, shall we enter?"

Elephase Nodded curtly.

The interior of the Asteroid was well lit and dry, sealed with strange silvery metals that glistened and reflected a strange spectrum of colours from the Marine's search-lights. The gravity was horrifying, but the dampeners in the ship did the only thing they were capable off (reduce gravity) while the fields and reinforcements of the Terminator armour kept even the reinforced bones of the Marines from snapping with each heavy step.

At last, they reached the interior of the Asteroid, a pool of light within which sat a human figure, idly fidgetting with an elegant white glove stretched on his 'hand'.

Elephase spoke, his voice transmitted through his suites Vox-Box in the language of the time when this ithing/i had been captured:

"Boyz, Yaz gonna talks to uz now, gotz it?"

The figure lifted his elegantly combed head and grinned before speaking in the refined, elegant tones of a gentleman of a hive world might, or perhaps a Rogue trader freshly docked with one of the ancient bastions of Imperium culture:

"No need for that my 'friend', I picked up the language of the day when you had that little incident all those years ago, a few million of your brethren turning traitor leaves quite the psychic wake even to one imprisoned, shackled and bound as I am"

Elephase was taken aback but did not show it, though he did send a message to the squad to triple-check their psychic shields for signs of Warp frost or intrusion.

"Then you will answer our questions now and forever Warp spawn".

The figure shook his head.

"Oh please, whatever happened to manners? I'll gladly help and serve you, though a minimum of courtesy is all I ask before you inevitably decide to reduce my frail body to a wet rag."

Elephase grit his teeth, but had been ready for this. The host's eccentricities had been well mentioned in the Liber Daemonica.

"Then, ikindly/i ... tell me your name. iFoul warpspawned demon/i."

The thing grinned.

"I will forgive the applets.

My name is bWalter/b, and I think that I can guess why you've come to me and whats behind it. I can serve you considerably in eliminating iAlucard/i..." 


End file.
